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Top Tips for Parents of football fans- way to save those pennies and utilise local resources.

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In the summer of 2021, my eldest fell in love with football. Swept up in Euro fever , we sat and watched all the games together, just as I had as a youngster and experienced the highs and the lows of the Euro campaign together.

Now its important to point out that prior to this Jacob had zero interest in football, zero interest in playing it, watching it , nothing.

Well since summer 21 this has all changed. We've also had the ladies euros in summer 22 which only increased his passion.

Firstly I half expected this to be a flash in the pan... it wasn't!

So Jacob now decided he needed to choose a team, there was some debate over this but eventually he settled on Tottenham Hotspur as that was who i supported growing up and my dad and brother also support Spurs. My husband has never followed football so was not involved in the decision process.

So a premiership team was chosen and has been diligently followed since. Now i quickly discovered that following football was not a cheap hobby! The kits are ££££!! The tickets are ££££££!! and it just seems never ending.

So I though I would pass on some top tips that i have found to support my sons love of football without breaking the banks.

How to get kitted out cheaply

Firstly- Football Kit! My son now has 16 football shirts- an obscene amount!!

A visit to the spurs store made my eyes water with a kit his size around £70 for the shirt only. He saved his Xmas money and come January 22 there was a sale on, we actually purchased the 20/21 kit the "little kids"variety, if you've a kid under 7 this is by far the cheapest way to buy a kit as you get the shorts and the socks as well. 

In January they were reduced to £35 and included last seasons shirt, shorts and socks, in January they were also BOGOF so we ended up with two kits for £35, one of which he wears to his weekly football classes and the other he wears around the house (all the time!). Since then we have added a further 14 shirts to the collect, 4 of these were xmas/ birthday presents, he asked various family members for money instead of a gift and saved for them, the rest have come from charity shops in Hertford Town!

Football boot wise, we got lucky and on a local giveaway page someone was giving away a pair of astro boots in his size, we did order some proper football boots from sports direct but they arrived far too small for him so i would always suggest going into the store to purchase.

I also some how got conned into buying a premier league ball for £21 from sports direct and goal keeper gloves (you can measure your hands instore in sports direct- yep thats a thing!).

We also purchased a range of Tottenham clothing, tshirts, joggers etc cheaply from ebay. These weren't a necessity but as he was outgrowing his clothes quickly anyway did earn me massive mum brownie points. I don't think he owns much clothing that isnt spurs now, but theyve all been brought cheaply and mostly second hand. 

Football Classes

So Jacob obviously wanted to join a football class, here is where we hit some difficulty. Many local football classes that I found were either on a day we couldnt do or too late for us. My husband is childrens educator/ entertainer he is very rarely in for bedtime and so the prospect of trying to occupy my youngest at around 6pm on the side of a pitch whilst my eldest practiced was just not feasible. Fortunately I discovered his school run a football club as part of their afterschool activities and so I was able to get him a place there and as a result he now plays an hour and 15 minutes of football each week and also does the holiday club in the school holidays. We are still hoping to get him into a proper team at some point, we have a range of football classes listed on our webpage which you can browse here .  

Watching football

So, as I quickly discovered, attending big football matches can be a costly affair. But I have discovered some top tips to foster this obsession without breaking the bank.

Hertford Town FC play most saturdays and tickets are very reasonable just £1 a child and £8 an adult, no need to prebook just show up on the day. I will admit to being a bit nervous the first time i took my son on my own, I dont know why but it always seemed such a male dominated activity (i know thats rediculous) but i worried i wouldn't feel comfortable. This was far from true, everyone was lovely, there were plenty of women there, and we throughly enjoyed watching the match pitch side with a burger and a can of pop. It had a real lovely community vibe about it too, we've been a few more times since and are starting to feel a bit like we belong! Since then there has also been a Hertford Town FC Womens team created who we are big fans of. 

We have also visited Cheshunt FC, who have a bit of a fancier stadium opposite Cedars Park and enjoyed that experience too. Tickets are also under a tenner here and therefore much cheaper than big matches.

Stevenage FC is also not very far away and offers cost effective football match viewing opportunities. It is at Stevenage FC that spurs u21's team play and we have been lucky enough to go to a few matches there (again for only a few £ each) and have seen the likes of Harvey White and Alfie Devine and also Sarr close up, all of which have played for the main team now too.

The biggest bargains that we have found though by doing a little digging are that you can get tickets to see England at Wembley very cheaply in the family stand. You need to sign up for the england supporters club, its free the link is here: 

Once you are signed up you get emailed with first priority of tickets. The trick here is to when clicking the link ensure you select the family section.  You can get tickets to watch England play at Wembley for just £12.50 a child and £25 an adult in the family stand this way which is incredible !! Obviously these are subject to availability. 

For premiership games we have a membership called "One Hotspur Membership" for Tottenham Hotspur its £20 for a child and £45 for an adult for a year and aside from getting a goodie bag my son also got a free stadium tour (worth the money on its own!) plus a newsletter emailed each month with various competitions and more.

You also get first priority for match tickets as and when they become available and they are much cheaper than buying any other way. I wasn't aware that premiership tickets are so difficult to get hold of now as they rarely go on public realease and usually are offered to members first.

We have been to a premier league match against Fulham and i believe our tickets were around £30 each and we have also recently been to watch a 3rd round FA cup tie against portsmouth- my sons ticket was just £10 and mine £15. We were advised by an insider that those early stage FA tickets are always super reasonable so one to watch for sure. We are also off in February to watch the Spurs womens team play Manchester United women at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and again this was super cheap £5 for me and £2.50 for Jacob. As a general rule womens football is a lot more reasonable cost wise than mens matches and are a fantastic way to see a match on a budget.

If you are travelling to Spurs (sorry I can only speak from my personal experience) kids under 10 travel free from cheshunt to White Hart Lane, they are also free on the tube too (we had to take the tube saturday due to the rail strikes and it cost in total £3.20 for us to travel!).

I do know several other football clubs have a similar membership but you would need to contact them for the specifics. For the one hotspur membership children also get a free stadium tour. I brought my son a membership for his birthday meaning for £20 he got a goodie bag to open on the day and a stadium tour and we were also able to book some tickets for him in this way.

Obviously you could just watch football on the TV, if you have sky sports, or bt sport great, if you don't you could see if a kind friend or relative would loan you their sky go login and watch key matches on a tablet or phone, failing that there is always match of the day, we love our sunday morning match of the day sofa sessions.

How to get players autographs for free

Disclaimer this doesn't always work. Through lots of digging and a few tips from insiders we have discovered the best chances of getting players autographs is to send them fan mail to their administration office, with an enclosed stamped address envelope.Most Premier League clubs do send a response, this may be a pre printed signed picture but in many cases they do have an allocation of actual autographs that they will send out every month therefore your child could well end up with the autograph of their favourite footballer in the post for just the cost of a stamp. I would advise not getting your childs hopes up on this, you could send a letter on their behalf, or just manage expectations in that you may or may not received a reply. We sent three letters recently to spurs and received responses to ALL OF THEM so it can and does work! Though we have had friends who it hasn't worked for so it really is luck of the draw.

So there we have it Mum's Guide to Football , how to encourage and support your childs hobby without bankrupting yourself. If i've missed any top tips please email me and let me know. Maybe ill see you at a local game sometime?

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